35 years of hurt...your top five low points

[summer of 69]

Does anybody out there remember this? I have asked Joe Corrigan and Gary Owen about this moment but they cannot recall it, or say they can't and I am wondering if I imagined it as nobody seems to recall this low moment:- We were playing Everton at home near the end of our runners up season in 1977. Gary Owen lost the ball carelessly in midfield and Everton grabed an equalizer to make it 1 - 1. The point we lost would cost us dear (it was only 2 pts for a win then) and Big Joe Corrigan came racing from his goal and nearly throttled the young skinny Owen on the spot. I wonder if anyone remembers?

 

[Mr Partridge]

I have to say, reading this thread has brought back some truly shocking memories but I wouldn't change a thing about our wonderful club. We've had so many shite times but without them we wouldn't Manchester City would we? We'd have no stories to tell and we certainly wouldn't appreciate where we are now.

Incidentally, another random memory from the Pearce era was losing at home to Middlesbrough 1-0, I wasn't feeling particularly well on that day and thought about not going but I hated missing games so I dragged myself out of bed and made the effort to go, we were absolutely shocking. Dreadful dreadful performance where the players just seemed to put zero effort in. It was so bad that SP gave an interview apologising to the fans saying it was a disgrace and an embarrassment and he was just as much to blame and neither he nor the players would be able to go home and look their families in the eye having played that badly. I completely agreed so why didn't you do something about it Stu? Because it only got worse after that!

 

[McKenzie'sGoalWasBetter]

81 cup final
5-0
leading rags 2-0 at half time and losing 3-2
relegation(s)

I can also remember being heart-broken when Peter Barnes left City!

 

[berger10]

In no particular order;

*Going 2 nil down to Gillingham, I was only 13 at the time and never understood the importance of the game and what might have come of the club had we lost. It was the grim reality etched on to the faces of those around me that made me realise this was make or break.

*Getting relegated back into Division 1 at Ipswich. I knew I was gonna get a load of stick in school the next day, and I did. I even had to put up with Stockport County fans taking the piss. I think I cried all the tears I could cry and remember my mum, a 30 year long season ticket holder, telling me "don't worry, we will be back". How right she was!

*The Stuart Pearce era in general. I remember standing and looking around the ground for one of the games, I think it was 'Boro and the ground looked half empty, there was no atmosphere and I just thought to myself "This isn't City anymore". As the players came out of the tunnel I had to really fight not to cry, though the lump in my throat was of melon like proportions. I think we scored 10 goals at home all season

*The WEst Ham and Blackburn FA Cup QF games. I'll lump them in together, and although the West Ham game choked me up, the one at Blackburn was horrendous on the pitch and in the terraces. "You're not fit to wear the shirt", fans fighting amongst each other, Psycho being abused getting onto team coach as it left Ewood Park.

*Most of the recent derby defeats and as much as the last minute goal losses were bad, I can remember feeling worse when they beat us one nil to pretty much clinch the title the few seasons ago. If I could have got anywhere near Rooney after the final whistle, I swear I would have killed the horrible little c*nt!

 

[Paulmcfc2703]

1. Relegated to Div 2. All the relegations would be the separate worst lows really but this was the worst of them.
2. Blackburn away in the FA Cup when the fans turned on the players.
3. Owens last minute winner/Rooneys winner in the Semi
4. 8-1 at boro and then the whole summer til the takeover. (Well til the Kompany signing as I knew something was going on then). The rumours of administration weren't fun.
5. Death of Foe. I was devastated at the time.

 

[The 12th Man]

The one which just stands out for me above any others was from when I was a little kid and I was at the Maine Road watching us play Liverpool at the end of the season, it eventually turned out to be the match which had us relegated from the Premiership, that day I witnessed grown men crying, women crying and I'm sure I was shedding a few tears myself too. Just being a little kid the memories are all hazy but I'll always remember the feel of pain and hurt that day. It was also one of my first matches I went to, it's definetly one of the ones I remember being at. Despite it being such a painful memory in a strange way it is also the memory that I am slightly fond of as I remember that day I thought I don't care about us being relegated, I will support City as anyone can follow a team who keeps winning titles, but to follow the underdogs is the sign of a real fan and one day I might see us become a great side, now years later I'm beginning to see this same club become a powerful force. Going through those tough times makes the great times even better and that is definately how it is feeling for me at the moment.

Other low points would be those obvious ones, the further relegations, the defeats to the rags, ie. Owen's last second goal, Shrek's lucky overhead kick and the second leg of the Carling Cup last season. Just the very fact that rags seem to view Shrek's overhead kick as a skillful kick that he meant, sorry but the guy even pretty much admitted it was all down to luck. Their mentality of it's not luck, it's all meant, is something that really gets to me. Last season when I rushed back from uni, barely had anything to eat and then rushed straight to the stadium to see us against Everton, only to end up seeing us lose 2-0 to them and watch loads of our fans get up and leave as soon as the second goal went in, then hear their fans chant about it and then celebrate as if they'd won a cup, that wasn't a great moment. And then obviously the tragedies, such as Marc Vivien-Foe, that was a very, very unfortunate and tragic time, then Nelly this season, Mercer, Allison, just all of the losses this club has had over time, it's always a tough pill to swallow when I hear about anyone passing away but when it's someone who has been with our club it makes it feel even closer to home and when it's guys who I have watched and cheered on, that's when it gets to me in a bad way.

 

[jay_mcfc]

I'm just going to say one game that always stands out in my head for some very strange reason. 12th December 1998, a 0-0 draw at home with Bristol Rovers leaving us in mid-table of the 2nd division. I was 17 at the time and had just bought my first season ticket as an 'adult' but that game almost drove me away from football for life. For all those moaning about our football now, get a dvd of this game; it was abysmal!!

Most of the relegation matches were tinged with adrenalin and optimism funnily enough but the game against Ipswich when they relegated us with a 2-1 win after we went 1 up with ten minutes to go absolutely killed me. The euphoria of taking the lead and then the downer when they scored was one of my worst feelings as a football fan. The final game of that season at home to Chelsea was also a horrible day where the whole ground was full of anger and the team played woefully in a 1-0 defeat.

 

[the goats backside]

the 1 thing i can remember was in 1986 (i think full )members cup 5-1 down 2 spurs and score 3 quick goals with 5 mins 2 go and thinking 5 more mins and we can win this but is was all over and we lost 5-4 in the end
A:)

Chelsea mate, and we were winning 1 nil, your right 5 more mins and we would have won 8.5

 

[Chris in London]

Relegation by Luton in 1983. Shouldn't have been anywhere near the bottom three. Only needed a draw, Kevin Reeves (my favourite player at the time) missed a sitter in the first half, and then right at the end Raddy fucking Antic's goal sends us down for the first time in my lifetime. I had grown up with City being a great team who were always there or thereabouts, even if trophies weren't too thick on the ground from 1970 onwards, and it was all falling apart. And then David Pleat did that dance on our beloved pitch and I have loathed him ever since.

Getting outplayed by Keegan's Fulham early in the season in the third tier. I knew when we went to Gillingham and York it would be like a cup final for them so we would always have to battle, but against Fulham it wasn't like Arsenal losing to Stoke at the Brittania, it was like Stoke losing to Arsenal at teh Emirates. We were comprehensively outplayed, and I thought, this is how low we have sunk. We have been played off the park by a third division team.

The 1/4 final vs Hamburg, when Dunne was sent off at our place with about 15 minutes to go. We were winning 2-1, but needed a third to take it in to extra time. We looked the better team, and Caicedo had had the ball in the net as well, but ruled out for offside. I had really fancied us for the Europa that season, but when Dunne was sent off I knew that was it. There was no way we could have held them out with 10 men for the rest of the game and extra time (another 45 minutes in total) even if we had nicked a third in normal time and taken it to extra time. I watched for the next 15 minutes knowing that we were out of the one competition we had a great chance of winning.

Owen's fergie time winner. Often when we have lost to the rags, we have not deserved anything out of the game, but we put up a tremendous fight at the swamp and to be deprived of victory because the ref bends the rules in the rags favour stuck in the throat more than any other derby defeat. They then go on about the greatest ever Manchester Derby. How can a game which isn't played to the rules be the greatest ever Derby? Even getting stuffed 5-0 at the swamp in the 90s didn't hurt that much.

Reading Colin Schindler's 'Manchester United Ruined My Life'. Anyone who wants to kow why the rags say half the things about us that they do, look no further than that book. A disappointing read in itself, though I suspect that this may be a generational thing, but nonetheless a comprehensive statement of many things I really dislike about the mentality of some Blues.






That was actually quite cathartic!!!

 

[1_barry_conlon]

Luton home in THAT game.
Stoke away in THAT game.
Ex-blue Alan Bailey mocking Weaver's Wembley celebration as he leathered home a late penalty for Stockport fucking County
Rolling around on the floor fighting a plastic rag farm boy in a pub in Cork on a stag do, as Alan fucking Ball laughably pissed away our top flight status at home to Liverpool.
Owen's 99th minute winner at the swamp.

Why has the vision of Alan Bates and Ollie Reed doing a bit of 'wrestling' come into my head when i read this...? :)